1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to architectural panels and panel assemblies, and to systems, methods, and devices incorporating the same as decorative or functional elements in a building space.
2. Relevant Technology
Recent trends in building design involve adding to the functional and/or aesthetic characteristics of a given structure or design space by adding (e.g., mounting or placing) one or more architectural panels thereto. Such panels (or set of panels) can enhance the architectural and aesthetic appeal or provide increased design flexibility, as compared to the original structure. For instance, architectural panels may be used to provide or replace conventional walls, backdrops, barriers, or partitions, or to provide surface treatments for the same, in order to adjust or improve the functional and/or aesthetic characteristics of the space.
Architectural panels may also include a display surface profile (or design), such as surface texturing or pattern, to further enhance the aesthetics of the design space. Like conventional walls, the surface profile is applied across the entire display surface of the panel in a uniform or consistent manner. In addition, panels provided or utilized in sets of two or more are manufactured with the same uniform surface profile to provide a generally consistent surface display feature across the panel surfaces. Other panel systems may provide variety to the design space by adding panels of different uniform surface display features.
Such conventional panels and panel assemblies suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, a single panel with uniform surface features lacks the variety that some users may desire in a given implementation. Though a user can attempt to provide the desired variety through other decorative means, such as artwork, lighting fixtures, etc., spatial, functional and/or aesthetic design constraints may limit or even prohibit the addition of variety-enhancing decorative means. Additionally, the use of multiple panels, each with a different, but uniform surface feature, or the use of multiple panels with different, non-related surface features, can highlight the abrupt border where two or more of the panels align in the design space, because the different surface features do not relate to each other in any particular way. Such dramatic and abrupt transitions between adjacent panels may be aesthetically and/or functionally undesirable in certain design spaces.
Accordingly, there are a number of disadvantages in conventional architectural panels and panel assemblies that can be addressed.